The Good Long Road follows my journey through motherhood as a writer and producer. You'll find musings on motherhood, creative activities to do with your kids, and excerpts and sneak peeks from my current books and films.

Search This Blog

Fall is probably my favorite season and inspires so many wonderful play and learning experiences -- the Weekly Kid's Co-Op was full of them last week. Before I share all of those brilliant activities, I'm sharing my latest Fall Activity FAIL!! I think often through Pinterest, it's easy to think other parents and/or educators and all bloggers are creating perfect, beautiful, successful activities all the time. But, that's not true. In my mind, I planned a wonderful leaf transfer activity using felt leaves and leaf-decorated containers that were in the dollar spot at Target. I set them out on a beautiful Fall scarf with tweezers and chopsticks for some Montessori-inspired play. It started off fairly well.

Then I decided to add some natural elements from an outdoor Fall Sensory bin and leave the room...

I came back to this! Quite soon, the mess grew and grew with seedlings (I think that's what they are) all over the floor and cars (see that green car at the edge of the frame) racing through them! The calm, quiet transfer part lasted probably 2-5 minutes. The shredding lasted much longer! If only I knew more about the natural item that my 2 year-old took apart with the tweezers. Then I could have turned this into a wonderful learning opportunity. Have you had an activity fail lately? Do you know what these things are that my little ones took apart? Please share your fails and your tips! I'd love to feel like I'm not alone in misjudging activities and I'd love to pull these nature items back out and do some more discovery with them -- this time intentionally. Now for the real deal -- fabulous fall fun from the Kid's Co-Op:

Having gotten to know Stacy really well through our joint Moms Fighting Hunger effort during Hunger Action Month, I was all too happen to jump on board and take on 12 Days of Christmas, the action prompt for Dec. 4th.

The e-book describes the prompt in this way: Choose another family in your area to be the recipient
of 12 days of gift giving. Try to think of a family that may be
struggling financially, emotionally, or with health problems and might
need a boost during the holiday season.E ach
day, starting December 13, leave a gift anonymously on the doorstep of
your chosen family. Involve the kiddos in your secret acts of service.
Your gifts can relate to the “12 Days of Christmas” song verses (i.e.
partridge in a pear tree, turtle doves, French hens, etc.) but it’s not
necessary. Try to choose or provide handmade gifts, drawings or tre…

March 20th is Very Hungry Caterpillar Day with celebrations and programs being held around the world to honor the 45th Anniversary of the book.

We love The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so of course we're joining the fun. Plus, my youngest son's blog nickname is Caterpillar, after the book. Just as Wild Thing is my 4 year-old's nickname inspired by Where the Wild Things Are. Today, we'll be doing another Very Hungry Caterpillar Food Drive. We did our first one for Eric Carle's birthday last June and called it a Very Hungry Caterpillar Virtual Food Drive and loved hearing that the virtual part worked, as others were inspired by our online shares and also did VHC-inspired food drives.

P.S. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Virtual Food Drive post also features 40+ Activities Inspired by the Book, so you'll definitely want to check it out.For our VHC-inspired food drive this time, Wild Thing will be helping me write the grocery list for food items to donate as we read the boo…

October 7-13 is Fire Prevention Week, so I am sharing 10 Fire Safety Crafts, Activities, and/or Books to help kids learn about fire safety and to encourage them to have some fun too! At our house, fire trucks and fire fighters always get Wild Thing excited so engaging with some new activities was a lot of fun.